The American Dream Review

With the March for Our Lives happening just a couple of days ago, it's an interesting time to play a game that parodies gun culture. However, is The American Dream the biting satirical VR experience that Americans need?

Baby's first guns... what could go wrong?

As a Canadian, I don't understand Americans' fascination with guns. They're tools designed exclusively to kill, whether it's animals or your fellow man. You can call me ignorant or say some stupid thing about your constitutional rights; I really don't care. I think gun culture is one of the dumbest things ever. It's right up there with the men's rights movement, political correctness, and Bieber fever. That's right; I think both conservatives and liberals are full of crap a lot of the time. What are you going to do? Shoot me?

Now that you understand my personal views, I was obviously excited to play a game that's all about parodying gun culture. Thankfully, the campaign is presented in a clever way as all you do is sit in a chair that's on a rail as you move between scenarios. Each stage involves different gameplay but you primarily just shoot at things. However, you're not shooting to kill anything. Instead, you shoot things like burgers to flip them, pieces of fruit to purée them for your baby, and balls in order to play catch with your dad. It's downright hilarious that the guns really don't do any harm and are seen as useful tools instead; something that they definitely aren't in real life. Overall, the variety of stages and mini-games can be incredibly enjoyable and should make you laugh out loud from time to time.

Guns cause a lot less damage than you'd think

The American Dream takes place in a strange take on the '50s and every person is merely a cardboard cut-out. The graphics are generally well done and I enjoyed looking around every unique environment that I found myself within. One of the most stand-out moments is when you're working in a gun registry office as there are countless boxes stacked all around you. This scene perfectly painted the bleak reality that gun registry is a manual process in America. There is no convenient central database so having to sift through dozens of registry numbers only to push the "Give Up" button was the most powerful moment in the campaign. Anyway, the audio is just terrible. The voice acting is well done as the talking dog who guides you on your journey sounds like he's straight from the '50s. However, the sound levels are all over the place. I had to constantly change the volume and the music drowned out the voices far too often.

Speaking of annoying aspects, there are a ton of glitches in The American Dream that regularly ruined the experience. On a couple of occasions, I had to quit and restart due to game-ending bugs that basically prevented me from progressing by not having certain objects materialize. The captions are awful, too, so good luck if you're hard of hearing. They scroll randomly and sometimes take about a minute to catch up. Often, they flash by without you even noticing that they're onscreen. On top of this, The American Dream lacks challenge as you can restart right where you left off whenever you happen to fail which isn't even possible during the majority of the campaign. You can try and find all the collectible stars but doing so is literally the only replay incentive. You get money as you progress but it's so random and you can go in debt so it doesn't even matter. Is that a statement about capitalism or just poor game design?

This may look like a parody but some people actually fish with guns

Guns are stupid and so is this game. The American Dream may be clever from time to time and provide some laughs in the process but as a game, it's too full of bugs and lacks the substance that would have made it a must-have VR title.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for reading my review of The American Dream. Feel free to ask any questions about the game or provide feedback and I'll gladly reply.

Larx (larxinostic): "As a Canadian, I don't understand Americans' fascination with guns. They're tools designed exclusively to kill, whether it's animals or your fellow man. You can call me ignorant or say some stupid thing about your constitutional rights; I really don't care. I think gun culture is one of the dumbest things ever." Remove "As a Canadian," since I was born just across the Detroit River from Ontario which makes me American despite all-Canadian grandparents, and you echo my perspective precisely. Guns exist to harm and to slay, and that's final. Wholly opposed to gun fetishism. But being anti-2nd doesn't earn me a lotta prestige, here in the USA. Ah well. *shrug* Anyway I tried this game out once & TBH I'd score it lower than you did, but hey - at least it scored lower than XV...waaaait....it scored higher than XV?! Welp. Time to grab my gu- -mball machine and go let off some steam. They say Kiwami 2 won't arrive 'til August, but we can feel the HEAT now. ;]

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Hey, I scored it the exact same as FF15. At least I got a few laughs out of this one! :P Haha, yeah. I don't know how much prestige you can have being anti-gun but obviously, it makes sense. Gun nuts also seem to confuse the word "amendment" with "commandment"; the former being something that is changed in a document. It literally doesn't mean much. Heck, the 27th amendment was ratified in 1992. Plus, the 18th amendment was repealed by the 21st amendment. Why not amend it again? It's far from a sacred document. Anyway, I could go on all day but you probably have bullets to dodge so I'll leave you be.

Tylerh1701: You'll never take away muh guns AJ!!!!!! I thought this game looked interesting as political satire, but sad to hear it's so buggy. I'll probably get it if it ever goes super cheap. I don't really know where I stand on guns, but I'm all for making fun of anyone who takes anything too seriously, and many Americans definitely take guns way too seriously.

Tylerh1701: At least there's one thing in this world that we should all agree on.....FF15 sucks!

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): You can say that again. But what about stockpiling firearms for the apocalypse? That's serious business that I can get behind. The zombies are definitely coming sooner or later and Hillary Hussein Obama wants to take ur gunz! Not in my 'merica!